I'm sticking with the theory that I'm Chilean/Samoan.

"All of my best children are dead."

Wow, that is such a goth and/or folk lyric in search of a song.

I'm mostly Polish/Jewish, though my grandmother was a German Jew. (She claimed her husband's family was Austrian, but he was actually the first generation born in Vienna -- his parents were from Poland.) As far as I know, the only American wars that people in my family served in were WWII and Korea. (My grandmother was an army nurse during WWII, with the Harvard Medical Corps. She was in the first medical team at Normandy after D-Day.)

My (seven times) great grandfather was a loyalist and ran off to Canada when the Revolution began. My family's been border hopping back and forth, every couple of generations since then. It might be my turn to head north.

My maternal grandfather was a decendant of Calvin Coolidge. And, apparently I qualify for DAR through my maternal grandmother's side of the family - the Heiby's.

Yeah, we won't discuss that I'm also half Iranian. I'm sure they would love that.

Not me. While all y'all were conquering America and throwing off the shackles of British oppression, my people were horse thieves in County Cork.

My sistah! Actually, no idea if they were horse thieves, but since great-grandpa joined the Irish mob over here, the tendency is clearly present. And though there's Donovans every where, the O'Donovans are concentrated in Cork.

My experience of the DAR is that they are very hierarchical. As in, your standing in the group is based on who you were related to in the Revolution. Through my mother, we descend from one of Nathaniel Greene's brothers (he has no direct descendants) so my grandmother was a v.i.p. in her chapter, and told us we should join to continue for the family. I've never had anything to do with 'em.

One the Mayflower, I had three relatives. The only one to show up in the history is a fellow who is often called "argumentative." He fought in the colony's first and only duel, and was sentenced to be tied up, "heels to neck" for I can't remember how long.

Family legend has it that we're realted to Daniel Boone on my father's side.

On my mother's side, my grandfather always claimed we were descended from *those* Scottish Stewarts, but he was kind of crazy.

I just come from long line of farmers. Both my parents grew up on farms, and so on back in Germany and Finland. No one's fought in an American war.

We have more Czech peasants?

:: raises hand ::

I could be in the DAR courtesy of one Lt. Ezra Tucker, who was a fourth-generation American. It's never seemed worth the trouble, except when I have the urge to snoot it over some of these anti-immigration people and point out how much better things would be if my ancestors had restricted immigration before their ancestors came over. One problem with this argument is that the Bushes are Mayflower descendants and the Tuckers arrived about 15 years later.